WHAT IS A COMPUTER?

Computer is a very versatile electronic

machine that process data and produces
information. The input to a computer is
data and its output is meaningful
information.
Computers have made a great impact on
our everyday life. Their presence is felt in
almost every walk of life be it homes,
schools, colleges, offices, industries,
hospitals, banks railway reservation etc.
Earlier computers were used for complex
computations and used by only scientists
and engineers.
They were very costly and hence only large
organization could afford them.
Microprocessor had made it possible to
manufacture powerful microcomputers
which are within the reach of small
organization and even individuals.
These computers being very fast in
calculation can be used not only for
computation but also to store and retrieve
information.
Classification of computers:

 Analog Computers
 Digital Computers
 Hybrid Computers
 ANALOG COMPUTERS

Analog computers handle or process

information which is of a physical nature,
for example temperature, pressure etc.
This computer require continuous signals
as input.
Example- speedometer, thermometer
 DIGITAL COMPUTERS

Digital computer process information which

is essentially in a binary form, namely 0
and 1.
Example- Micro computer, minicomputers,
mainframe computer, super computer
 HYBRID COMPUTERS

Hybrid computer is a mixture of analog and

digital computers. Used both type of
signals analog as well as digital as input.
this computer is mainly used in medical.
Computers can be classified
on the basis of size and
speed
 MICRO COMPUTER
 MINI COMPUTER
 MAINFRAME COMPUTER
 SUPER COMPUTER
 MICRO COMPUTER

This computer is also called personal

computer (PC) because mainly used for
personal use, educational purpose, for
entertainment or in very small size offices.
This computer has single chip
microprocessor. This digital computer can
support only one node at a time.
 MINI COMPUTER

Mini computer is more powerful than Micro

computer, many of the today’s Mini
computers can accommodate as many as
200 users working from individual
terminal.
 MAINFRAME COMPUTER

This type computer can support 200-500

nodes at a time and used in big size
offices , used in larger business and larger
organizations and for central data
processing as railway reservation, airline
reservation etc.
 SUPER COMPUTER

Super computer is used for compact

calculation or for calculating huge no. of
data in very less time as weather
forecasting, nuclear research, earthquake
prediction etc .
 Generation of Computer
FIRST GENERATION:
 Time period - 1951-1959
 Technology used - vacuum tubes
 Memory capacity - 10000-20000
Characters
 Execution speed -few thousand
instruction/second
Language - Machine code
 Important computer- UNIVAC I
UNIVAC II
IBM170, ENIAC
 General remarks
computer very expensive, very large in size
and weight, relatively slow, un-reliable,
generated a lot of heat, Beginning of
electronic data processing
 Second Generation
 Time period - 1959-1963
 Technology used - Transistors and Diodes
 Memory capacity - 4000 to 64000 Characters
 Execution speed - up to 1 million
Instruction/second
 Language - Assembly, high level,
COBOL, FORTRAN, ALGOL
 Important computer - cdu-60, UNIVAC 100,
IBM-1620, 7090, 7094
 General remarks
Use transistors and diodes, reduced size and weight,
faster operation but costly, increase in reliability,
rapid growth in data processing application and
introduction of time sharing and real time
processing
 Third Generation
Time period - 1963-1975
Technology used - Integrated Circuit (IC)
Memory capacity - 32000 to 4 million
characters
Execution speed - up to 10 million
instruction/second
Language -High level like FORTRAN, ALGOL-68
Important computer - IBM 360, Univac 100
 General remarks
smaller in size, faster in speed, reliable and required
less power reduced computing cost, improved
software support, development methods and tools
 FOURTH GENERATION
 Time period - 1975 to (today)
 Technology used - Micro Processor using VLSI
[Very Large Scale Integration]
 Memory capacity - 512000 to 32 Million
characters
 Execution speed - up 1 to 100 million
instructions
 Language - all high level language
 Important computer - CDC cyber 170, Apple
Macintosh,
IBM PC, PCXT, PC-AT.
 General Remarks
more powerful and versatile computer, much faster,
much smaller, less expensive, minicomputer and
Microcomputer come in the market.
 FIFTH GENERATION
– Japan initiated the fifth generation computer
project in 1982.
– Used VLSI parallel processing technology
incorporated Artificial Intelligence [AI].
– Process non numeric information such as
pictures and graphs.
 Input devices
Input devices are used to provide data & instruction
to the computer.
Some of the popular input devices are describe
below
 KEYBOARD
Computer keyboard looks like a typewriter, but has
many more useful keys. In general it has 101 or
104 keys.
These keys can be grouped in six categories:
1. alphabetic keys
2. Function keys
3. numeric keys
4. Arrow keys (cursor movement keys) navigational
keys
5. Special keys
6. Numeric pad keys
 SCANNER
Scanners are a kind of input devices.
They are capable of entering
information directly in to the computer.
The main advantage of direct entry of
information is that users do not have to
type the information. This provides
faster and more accurate data entry
 MOUSE
A mouse is a pointing device used for
controlling the movement of the cursor
on the computer screen. It is held in
one hand and moved across a flat
surface
Optical Mark Reader
[OMR]
Optical Mark Reader is a special scanner
used for recognizing a pre specified
type of mark made by pen or pencil.
For example – objective test paper of
DOEACC [NIELIT]
MICR [Magnetic Ink Character
Recognition]
MICR detects the special encoded
characters on bank cheque and deposit
Receipt.
After detecting the encoded characters
the MICR converts them in to digital
data for the computer
Bar Code Reader [BCR]
Bar code readers are special devices
used to read bar coded data. Bar code
is a specialized code used for fast
identification of items.
OCR [Optical Character
Reader]]
This device is capable of detecting
alphabetic characters on a computer
printout containing complete pages of
typed text or hand written text
 Other input devices
are:
 Joystick
 Lightpen
 Trackball
 Web camera
 Video camera
 OUTPUT DEVICES
To Present the Result of Computing
Process We Require Output Devices.
Some of the popular output devices are
describe below:
 PRINTER
Printers are the most popular output
devices. They provide information in a
permanent readable form. They
produce printed output of result
program and data.
There are two type of printer
1. Impact Printers
2. Non-Impact Printers
 IMPACT PRINTER
Impact printer use an electro mechanical
mechanism that causes hammers or
pins to strike against a ribbon and
paper to print the text.
Example:
1. Dot-matrix printers
2. Line Printers
3. Daisywheel
4. Chain Printer
Non-Impact Printers
Non-impact printers use thermal,
chemical, electrostatic, laser beam or
inkjet technology for printing the text.
Example-
1. Laser Printers
2. Inkjet Printers
 MONITOR [VDU]
[VISUAL DISPLAY UNIT]
The main component inside a monitor is
 
a picture tube or CRT [Cathode Ray
tube].
It is used for displaying output on the
screen and consists of 25 rows and 80
columns. Each row and column
intersection displays one character of
alphabets which is made up of smaller
dots called pixels
 Other output devices are:
 Plotters
 MultimediaProjector
 Speech synthesizer
 MEMORY:
The memory is an essential component
of a computer system to store
instruction and data.
Memory can be divided in to following
two types.
1. Primary memory[Main Memory,
semiconductor memory]
2. Secondary Memory
 PRIMARY MEMORY
Memory which is directly connected to CPU or part
of CPU in some PCs called primary memory.
Primary memory is a small and relatively fast storage
unit.
This type of memory is also known as main memory.
Primary memory is temporary memory. It retains its
contents only for the time the power supply is
switched on.
As soon as you switched off your PC the main
memory loses its contents.
Primary memory can be divided in to the
following two types.
1. RAM
[Random Access Memory]
2. ROM
[Read Only Memory]
 SECONDARY MEMORY
Memory which is external to CPU. Secondary
memory or secondary storage devices are
permanent storage unit used for storing
program and data.
They use principle of magnetization for
storing 0 and 1 there for; they are also
known as magnetic memory.
They are non-volatile the memory retain its
contents even when power is switched off.
Example - Hard disk, Floppy Disk, Magnetic
tape etc
 Computer Organization
The internal arrangement of different parts of
a computer is called computer organization.
All computer system performs the five basic
operations:-
1. Inputting
2. Storing
3. Processing
4. Outputting
5. Controlling
 CPU [Central Processing Unit]
The CPU is the brain of any computer system.
In a human body all major decision are
taken by the brain and all other parts of the
body function as directed by the brain
similarly, in a computer system , all major
calculation manipulation and comparisons
are made by the CPU. The CPU is also
responsible for activating and controlling the
operation performed by the all other units
of computer system.
The major parts of CPU are:
1. ALU [Arithmetic Logic Unit]
2. CU [Control Unit]
3 .MM [Main Memory]
 ARITHMETIC LOGIC UNIT
All calculations are performed and all
comparisons are made by the ALU. ALU
are designed to perform the four basic
arithmetic operations add, subtract,
multiply, divide and logical operations
such as less than greater than, equal to,
not equal to.
.
 CONTROL UNIT

A control unit acts as a Central Nervous

System for all components of a computer.
MAIN MEMORY OR SEMICONDUCTOR
MEMORY –
1. RAM [Random Access Memory] –
RAM is read and write memory.
Information can be written into and read
from a RAM. It is a volatile memory. It
retains the stored information as long as it
is supplied with power supply. When
power supply is switched off the stored
information in the RAM is lost.
Types of RAM
(i) Static RAM (ii) Dynamic RAM
ROM [READ ONLY MEMORY]
2. ROM [Read only Memory] - ROM is a
permanent [non-volatile] type memory. Its
contents are not lost when power supply
is switched off. The user cannot write into
ROM. Its contents are written into at
manufacturing time. ROMs store
permanent program [FIRMWARE] and
other type of information which are
needed by the computer to execute user
program
 CACHE MEMORY
Cache memory is placed in between
the CPU and the main memory. It is
much faster than the main memory.
The access time of cache memory is
15-25 nano seconds whereas that of
the main memory is 80 nano
seconds.
 VIRTUAL MEMORY
virtual memory is part of secondary
memory used for program execution.
 HARDWARE
Physical part of the computer is called
hardware. Part of the computer that we
can touch is called hardware such as
keyboard, mouse, monitor etc.
 SOFTWARE

Software is logical part of the computer

without software one cannot use
hardware.
Computer software are made with set
of programs software are basically of two
types­­-
1. System software
2. Application software
 
1. APPLICATION SOFTWARE

application software are set of programs

designed for specific uses such as word
processing, school management, etc.
Application software is two
types-
 1. User written – bank software,
railway reservation software, airlines
software etc.
 2. Readymade software – MS Office
[MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint,
MS Access, MS Outlook express ] ,
Corel Draw(graphics package),Page
maker, Photoshop, Photo
Impression, Tally etc.
 SYSTEM SOFTWARE
 System software is sets of one or more
programs that are basically designed to
control the operation of a computer system.
 System software controls the following:
 Running of other software packages.
 Communication with peripheral devices.
 Monitoring the use of various hardware
resources such as memory, CPU etc.
Example-
 1. Operating system - [MS DOS, MS
Windows, Linux, UNIX]
 2. Language Translation software -
Assembler, Compiler, Interpreter
 3. Utility software - Antivirus Software
(McAfee, Norton Antivirus, eSAN, avast!) ,
Device Drivers, System tools (Disk
Cleanup, Disk Defragmenter).
OPERATING SYSTEM
Operating system is system software that
control the internal activities of the
computer hardware and provides user
interface. It is the first program loaded
into the computer’s main memory after the
computer is switched on.
Some of the popular operating system are
windows, Linux, Unix, dos [disk operating
system]
 FUNCTION OF OPERATING
System –
1. Processor Management
2. Memory Management
3. Device Management
4. File Management
5. Security Management
6. Scheduling
7. Timesharing
 Types of Operating System
1. Single User Operating System – Operating
System which allows only one user to work on
a computer at a time is known as Single user
Operating System.
Example – MS DOS, MS Windows XP
2. Multiuser Operating System – A multiuser
Operating System allows a numbers of users to
work on a single computer.
Example – Linux, UNIX, MS Windows 2000 etc.
3. Single Tasking Operating System-
Operating system which can execute only a
single task (work) at a time is known as single
tasking Operating System.
4. Multitasking Operating System-
Multitasking Operating system support execution
of more than one task at a time.
Example- Linux, UNIX, Windows etc.
 COMPILER
A compiler is a program that translate high level
language program into machine code.
A compiler goes through the entire program and
then translate into machine language.
Compiler is nearly 5-25 times faster than an
interpreter.
 INTERPRETER
An interpreter is a program that translate high
level language program into machine code.
It translate line by line.
It is smaller program as compared to compiler.
 ASSEMBLER
Assembler is a program that translate assembly
language program into machine code.
 INTRODUCTION OF LINUX
OPERATING SYSTEM
Linux is a multiuser multitasking timesharing
operating system first developed by Linus
Benedict Torvalds in the year 1991.
Linux is a 32 bit operating system. It runs on a
wide variety of platforms such as Intel, Alpha,
Sparc etc. it is a open source operating system.
It is distributed as a free software license called
GNU General Public License [GPL
 BASIC LINUX ELEMENTS-
 KERNEL- kernel is the core of linux
operating system and is loaded into the
memory as soon as system starts up. It
manages main memory, files, and peripheral
devices. Maintaining the time and date,
launching applications, are also function of this
part. It is the heart of LINUX operating system.
•SHELL- shell is a program which
interprets commands given by the
user.
 FILE SYSTEM – Linux treats everything
as files. All the direcctories, hardware
devices, input output devices all are
treated as a file.
 MULTIMEDIA
Multimedia is a combination of Text, Graphics,
Audio, Video, and Animation.
It is very useful in the field of marketing,
education, advertising and so many interesting
fields.